This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Chapter 213 Aegis

Nickname: N/A

Species: Biolith Sentinel

An ancient being who uses layers of sedimentary stone to form a solid and powerful exterior. Its body has incredible resilience and incredible strength, while the absence of a conventional core makes it significantly more difficult to kill than similar rock-based spiritual creatures.

The Biolith Sentinel embodies the essence of both strength and adaptability and given enough time it is capable of reshaping itself to respond to threats and environmental changes.

Quality: Platinum

Spiritual Power Grade: Yellow

Type: Microorganism (Bacteria)

Attribute: Earth

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SS-Layered Defense: Utilizing its unique stone composition, the Biolith Sentinel can absorb and dissipate incoming attacks. Each layer of its body can absorb a certain percentage of damage, allowing it to mitigate damage more easily.

S-Geoform Transformation: The Sentinel can reshape nearby stone and its own body at will, creating protective barriers or weapons made from its own and nearby stone. It can also temporarily absorb and integrate nearby stones to provide a temporary boost to its strength and resilience.

A-Tectonic Resonance: The Biolith Sentinel can generate seismic shockwaves that ripple through the ground, destabilizing the terrain and disorienting foes within a wide radius.

A-Earth's Embrace: This ability allows the Biolith Sentinel to meld into the ground, appearing like a collection of stones, its lifeforce is undetectable to foes with spiritual power up to one grade higher. While in this state, it can restore health by drawing energy from the earth itself.

A-Stone Regeneration: This ability allows the Biolith Sentinel to regenerate lost stone layers over time, gradually restoring its physical form and enhancing its strength.

B-Crystalline Burst: Upon taking significant damage, the Sentinel can unleash a shockwave of sharp crystalline shards, dealing damage to nearby enemies. However, the attack is indiscriminate and will harm both friends and foes.

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Kain's heart raced as he read through the abilities. Many of the skills sounded promising. And in the recent battle with the dragon, Kain had gotten to see its power in person. The thought of having such a dependable ally capable of shielding him and his friends filled him with hope.

He also couldn't help but feel giddy at the prospect of someone trying to destroy his contract by looking for the core but being unable to find one.

After all, the Sentinel's "core" was microscopic and difficult to find. They'd have to make sure to destroy every single speck of the golem in order to ensure its death.

Kain then looked at the empty Nickname column, and fell into a contemplative silence.

Many of the previous nicknames Kain produced such as Bea, Aby, and even his lab assistant Vera, were all acronyms for what they were and hadn't required much thought. Meanwhile, Eve also felt like an obvious name for her due to her characteristics.

'I can't exactly use the initials for its species as a name…BS as a name is kinda…'

Kain shook his head at the image of his contract having the same initials as bullshit.

But unlike Eve, there was nothing that jumped out to him as a name for his new contract.

However, given its role as a guardian and how it selflessly sacrificed its own body to protect Kain and the other, and how it will also function as a shield in the future for Kain, Kain decided to go with a name that most reminded of a strong shield.

'I will call you Aegis' Kain decided.

The decision settled, Kain fell asleep with a smile on his face.

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Kain didn't hear any more news about the relic from the professors at the school, but he knew that they must have gotten it under control. Much of the vegetation surrounding the college had also been restored.

With the life force of nearby creatures no longer being sucked away by the relic, it can be assumed that the frequency of beast-tides will finally start to decrease as the resources of the forest are replenished.

Kain's life over the next six months gradually fell into a stable routine of going to classes, brainstorming for his next research project, fulfilling requests as an evolutionary planner and receiving updates about the business.

Speaking of the business, its launch was a resounding success. The creation of a spiritual beer whose effects don't diminish with time, allowed to quickly gain a foothold within the empire and the scale of their production had to be increased several times.

After the first month of their launch, Kain was able to make back all of the money he'd initially invested and finally see some profit.

However, by now Kain was receiving substantial dividends from the company and its profit for him now far exceeded the profit from the evolutionary patent for the lumifin he developed. Especially, since after a few months the craze for the new evolutionary form had cooled down and people purchasing the plan were not as frequent.

Although due to its beautiful form and decent strength, it was still a popular contract. Additionally, its beauty makes it a popular ornamental fish within the artificial ponds and lakes of many noble homes.

Additionally, Kain and the others had already undergone their second and third re-rankings. However, unlike the first re-ranking of the year, the ones afterwards usually do not see any large changes in rank.

The top 5 of their year remained as Serena, Kain, Soren, Kairos and Ranya. Unfortunately, while Kain was strong enough to defeat pretty much all of his peers using the Vespirae alone, and only really needed to use Bea against the other members of the top 5, even with the addition of Aegis, he had been unable to defeat Serena.

Even more irritatingly, he still had not been able to force out her third contract and was defeated with only 2 of her contracts against his 3.

Addison, Aiden, Finn, Leonara and Bridge all kept their rankings within the top 20, with only slight shifts in rank.

The greatest change in rank was actually Elias who went from his initial last-placed rank to rank 42 at the first re-ranking, and then up to rank 32 by the third re-ranking. He'd finally found a suitable second contract for himself with some decent combat abilities.

If he were able to use his gift without the unfortunate side-effect of becoming naked, he'd probably have a solid chance of entering the top 20 as well.

There was no fourth re-ranking in the year, so all rankings were finalized. Therefore, the college could now confirm its definitive lineup that would be representing the school.

After the first re-ranking, they had bi-weekly joint training sessions with the seniors, but considering the rankings could still potentially change, and the most changes in rank are typically among the first-years, they were still not heavily invested into or required to devote much joint practice time.

By the time of the second re-ranking, the practice sessions were more frequent and brought to once to twice a week.

However, as Kain glanced down at the new training schedule after their place in the top 5 for their year had been confirmed, he was overcome with dread.

A jam-packed schedule that barely left time for him to breathe, especially since the summer vacation would be starting soon after their exams so they could devote every waking moment to training.

However, he knew that the intense practice was necessary—after all, the national competition was only a short month away.